Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-01-26


lottery gambling contained in your paper
of Monday, and prior to that date, and to
congratulate the REcoRD-UNIoN on being
the only leading journal in California with
the courage, disinterestedness and public
spirit to denounce in plain terms this crying
evil, and to expose the shameful and
shameless manner in which the lottery
law is violated. In referring to the practice
of certain newspapers in advertising the
Louisiana lottery you strike at the root of
the evil. The publication of the cock
and bull stories about the winning of
prizes does more to incite gambling in
lottery tickets than all other causes COM
bined. They consist of what is known in
newspaper parlance as paid matter" i. e.,
an advertisement in the guise of reading
matter. This advertising is in clear viola
lation of the law and, under Section 800 of
the Penal Code, is aiding and abetting
lottery and constitutes a misdelneanor.
The law is plain enough as it stands, but
no effort is made to enforce it. The writer
would suggest some amendments that
would force the officers to do their duty.
Let Section 800 of the Penal Code be
amended or supplemented in substance as
follows: Make it misdemeanor to pub
v,
drawing of lottery or any paid reading
matter, in narrative or other form, relating
to the winning of prizes, or tending to in
duce persons to purchase tickets in lotter-
les, no matter under what guise such enter
prise may be designated.
Make it the duty of every Sheriff or Con-
stable, or every Chief of Police or Marshal
of any incorporated city or town, to swear
to complaint against the proprietor, pub
Usher or manager or any other publication,
printing or issuing such mater, and arrest
the offender and stringently require that
the District Attorney shall. without delay,
bring the offender to prosecution. 1t would
be an easy matter to provide penalties for
the neglect of the said duty by the officers.
In fact, the entire machinery to compel en-
forcement of the law could be made very
simple.
In no other State in the Union, except per-
haps in few of the Southern States, is the
advertisement and putting of lotteries per-
mitted. The State of New York is particu-
larry stringent in this matter. A number
of years ago the elder Bennett, presuming
on the power and influence of his paper,
essayed to defy the law by publishing lot
terry drawings in the Herald, but was
brought up with round turn and COM
PEELED to desst. l do not remember the
exact particulars of the case whether any
penalty was or was not inflicted, but l do
distinctly recollect that Bennett was beaten.
BY some it is charged that the impnity
with which the San Francisco newspapers
violate the lottery law is due to disincli-
nation to incur the wrath of the press,
which in some cases, is known to be sleep
less Now, | do not mean to assert that
the law authorities of San Francisco are
afraid of the newspapers, but with such
provisions Of the law as | have indicated
above they could perform their duty with
out affording any excuse to the newspapers
to hound them in the future. As an in
stance of the awe in which the newspapers
are held on the lottery question, will state
a fact within my own knowledge. There Is
in San Francisco an organization known
as the Society for the Suppression of Vice.
The attention of the agent of this society
was called to the lottery evil, and he was
asked why he did not prosecute the Offend
ing newspapers. What p he exclaimed
in horror, go after the newspapers Why,
they'd bust up our society inside of a week.
Oh, no, our society doesn't want TO antago
nize the papers"
One of the bubbles or subteifuges resort
ed to by the newspapers when they are
accused of violating the lottery law, is that
the publications appear after the fact that
is, subsequent to the drawing, and there
fore cannot be an inducement for the pur-
chase of tickets. This is true as TO that
particular drawing, but it is an incite-
ment TO invest in future drawings.
This has been so decided by the
Courts, but l cannot recall the particular
cases. Another bubble is that the law
only applies to lotteries drawn in the State
in which the advertisement appears. This
point has been passed upon to the contrary
by the Court of Appeals of the State of New
York
The member of the Legislature who will
introduce bill and secure the passage of a
law to abolish or at least check the mon
strous and still-growing lottery evil may
incur the enmity of the metropolitan press.
which fattens on it, but will earn the ap-
proval of all right minded men and prove
himself public benefactor. Laying aside
the moral part of the subject, which was
succinctly and ably discussed in the REC
ORD UNIONS editorial, let US consider it in
its economic bearings. 1t is expertly esti-
mated that an average of $4,000 per
month is drained from the States of
California and Nevada by the Louis
lana lottery of which amount an
average of some $4,000 is returned
for prizes and payment of advertis-
ing bills or retained as agents commissions.
Now know of no rule of political economy
by which drain of $4,000 per
month from any particular section,
without the return of any equiv
alent, can he anything but huriful
to prosperity. The answer of the lottery
gamblers to this is, that people will gamble
anyhow, and that the remedy is lottery
authorized by the State of California. This,
under our Constitution, is impossible. But,
granting that the gambling instinct is in
herent in human nature, the fact stands
out that other forms of gambling are not so
injurious to a community in financial
sense, because in card and dice gambling
bad and demoraliZing as it is-the money
at least finds its way from hand to hand,
and passes more or less through the chan
nels of trade within the community, while
money "gambled" away in foreign lot
teries goes to enrich other communities,
and but trifiing percentage ever finds its
way back to its source.
1t seems that the members of the Legis
lature have not fully realized the import
ance of this subject, and its injury to the
State, morally, socially and pecuniarily but
| believe they will, for know earnest men
in the houses who despise the vice. The
metropolitan members seem more indifier-
emf, and the country members, many of
them at least have not been brought in
contact with the question sufficiently to
realize its baieful influence. 1t requires,
however, no deep research or remarkable
legislative ability to ascertain the facts and
perfect legislation to abate the evil, and 1t
is to be hoped that the close of this session
will find on our statute books stringent
law which will effectually prevent the fur
ther poisoning of the minds of the gullible
and ignorant by the newspapers with the
virus of lottery gambling.
HOME PROTECTION
A Decadence of Persian Discipline.
A prominent official at Tabreez, Persia,